Rethinking the Justice and Development Party’s ‘Alevi openings’

Lord, Ceren

doi:10.1080/14683849.2016.1257913

Cited by 28 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Like the "Alevi opening," this period of symbolic gestures towards the community ended soon after 2011, as Turkey became increasingly involved in the sectarianized conflict in Syria. 49 Perhaps most alarmingly for Shiʿa at this time, was the growing sense of Diyanet efforts to monitor and control their mosques and community. One incident appeared to justify these fears in 2013, when a leaked report prepared by the provincial mufti of Iğdır, Cüneyt Kulaz, the Diyanet's official representative in the province, and signed by the governor and general of security, angered Shiʿa throughout Turkey.…”

Section: Entering the Public Spherementioning

confidence: 99%

Between Mezhep and Minority: Twelver Shiʿism in the Turkish Public Sphere

Williamson Fa

2023

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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Despite the growth in scholarship on diverse religious communities in Turkey, little attention has been paid to Twelver Shiʿi Muslims. Since the founding of the Republic, the Turkish state's foundational secularist agenda has attempted to control and promote a single hegemonic form of Islam, and Shiʿa have faced continuous issues practicing their faith in public as a result. While the liberalization of the past three decades has allowed Shiʿism to enter the public sphere, the community has had to continue navigating limitations on their expression of religious difference. Based on fieldwork in Eastern Anatolia, this article deepens understandings of Islam in Turkey by showing how Shiʿa have negotiated their position vis-à-vis both secularist and Sunni-majority actors and policies across various religious and political currents. Rejecting categorization as either mezhep (sect) or minority, Shiʿa have demanded independence from state religious control while also asserting their allegiance to the Republic and nation as Turkish Muslims.

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Section: Entering the Public Spherementioning

confidence: 99%

Between Mezhep and Minority: Twelver Shiʿism in the Turkish Public Sphere

Williamson Fa

2023

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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“…66 During the early years of the Turkish Republic, Alevis were 'perceived as a suspect potential fifth column (of Iran) and a security threat requiring continued surveillance'. 67 They continued to be seen as a threat to national security in the following decades as well: from the 1930s through the Cold War period and more recently during the Gezi uprisings of 2013, effectively suffering persecution. Their places of worship (cemevi) have not been granted official status, resulting in the exclusion of the Alevi community from access to state financial support, which is given to all other religious communities in Turkey, albeit unequally.…”

Section: Racism Against Alevismentioning

confidence: 99%

Sectarianism as racism: the collective punishment of Alevi communities in Turkey

Yonucu

2023

Race & Class

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Drawing on the case of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination against Alevis, a historically stigmatised and persecuted ethnosectarian community in Turkey, this article shows that sectarian identities can also be raced. The case of Alevis in Turkey not only indicates how sectarianism can function as a form of racism but also offers an example of the connection between the production of race and the politics of death. Approaching racism as a punitive mechanism and form of collective punishment that punishes racialised communities at different levels and that constantly reminds them of the possibility of what Gilmore terms ‘premature death’, the article offers a new and nuanced understanding of the multiple modalities of racism in Turkey. Rather than viewing racism in Turkey as merely an imitative form of European racism, this article shows that racism in Turkey is also informed by the country’s own imperial past. Turkey provides fertile ground for examining both western and non-western forms of racism and the intersections between the two.

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“…Turkish-Islamic framework under the AKP government (Lord, 2017). As can be seen in Chapter 8 of this volume, a telling example of the incumbent government's intervention in Alevi actors' framing process is President Erdoğan's defamatory remark: 'Alevism in Germany does not include Ali [Ali'siz Alevilik].…”

Section: The Transformation Of French Alevis' Relations With Their Ho...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Alevi Diaspora in France: Changing Relations with the Home and Host States

Arkilic¹

2022

The Alevis in Modern Turkey and the Diaspora

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This chapter analyzes the repercussions of the changing political atmosphere in France and Turkey since the early 2000s for French Alevis. More specifically, it examines how the leadership of the Federation of Alevi Unions in France (Fédération Union des Alévis en France, FUAF) has responded to critical political developments, including the Alevi Opening (Alevi Açılımı), the Sunnification of Turkish domestic and foreign policy, and the French government’s increasing interest in Alevis. The chapter is based on a careful examination of organizational documents and news sources in English, French, and Turkish, and interviews with Alevi representatives as well as with Turkish and French officials. It shows that, since the early 2000s, FUAF leaders’ relations with the Turkish government have deteriorated against the backdrop of the rise of political Islam in Turkey and the development of a biased diaspora engagement policy that favors Sunni Islamic and newly established Alevi organizations over the FUAF. As FUAF leaders have felt increasingly excluded by their origin country, they have established closer relations with French authorities. The FUAF has reinforced its ties with French policy-makers by serving as a key dialogue and project partner and an ally in the French government’s fight against religious extremism.

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Rethinking the Justice and Development Party’s ‘Alevi openings’

Cited by 28 publications

References 27 publications

Between Mezhep and Minority: Twelver Shiʿism in the Turkish Public Sphere

Between Mezhep and Minority: Twelver Shiʿism in the Turkish Public Sphere

Sectarianism as racism: the collective punishment of Alevi communities in Turkey

The Alevi Diaspora in France: Changing Relations with the Home and Host States

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